Meanwhile in the Hosted Games category, Lewis Manalo has released The Spy and the Labyrinth, a story told entirely through documents and journal entries (an unusual format for Choice of Games pieces). The premise involves an archaeologist from Miskatonic University lost in the Amazon. Given Lovecraft’s well-known racism and poor handling of indigenous cultures — and the way that sometimes comes through in other writing in the Lovecraftian tradition — I’m cautious about that premise. On the other hand, CoG as a brand works intentionally to avoid sending racist messages in the works they create or host, and I feel like the editors there would flag a work if it were displaying those tendencies. So I’m not entirely sure what to expect here, and haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

Famous archaeologist Dr. Lucius Thayer has gone missing in the Amazon jungle, and the CIA has asked you to find him. Unfortunately, you’re not the only one interested in Dr. Thayer. Enter a world of ancient mysteries and modern dangers, of suspicious cults and nefarious secret agents. THE SPY AND THE LABYRINTH is a thrilling text-based game that will capture your imagination, but always remember: you’re not paranoid if the danger is real.

I haven’t been keeping up with the site very much, and as such, it’s mostly functioned as a professional placeholder. That said, I’m thinking of making the time to update it more frequently (weekly, hopefully? At least, bi-weekly?) Frankly, I grew up with the belief that it was impolite to speak about oneself, an idea that does not lend itself to blogging and that the internet and social media has made hopelessly antiquated.

That said, I’m going to attempt to focus the blog portion of this site on things other than myself, but that concern my work as a writer. (If you have discovered this page by some miraculous accident, I am a writer and filmmaker. Most of my recent work as been in video games.) I’ll attempt to update On Fridays.

Till Friday, then. And I’ll leave you with a scene from my latest obsession: Paterson directed by Jim Jarmusch. This movie is transcendent. It is, as John Cassavetes hoped his own films would be, a movie that’s the “same size as life,” yet for all its lack of explosions and bikinis and time travel, Paterson shows how sublime daily life can be. Filmmakers don’t do that shit anymore.